This invention relates to the encoding of video signals.
Video signals are normally transmitted from their source to a destination viewing station, such as a television set, in a series of frames, which are successively displayed to give the illusion of motion.
In general, higher resolution frames (frames with higher numbers of pixels) are capable of carrying more information and will appear sharper to the viewer. It is thus advantageous, when transmitting video signals through communications channels (e.g. cables or modulated radio frequency transmissions), to communicate as many pixels therethrough as the bandwidth of the channel will permit.
It is known to use various data compression methods to increase the amount of video information communicated over a channel.